Read them and weep!
Okay, so maybe you won’t weep, but we’ve certainly come up with some great and not-so-great stories in this our third annual “sealed section”. We’ve got a good mix of stories that have gone wrong as well as our usual number of articles that should provide a valuable lesson for those involved in the wonderful world of events.
During our research we were actually given the same story by two separate individuals, both working in different jobs than they were when this incident happened. It goes to show how things that do go wrong remain in the memories of those involved long after the event is over.
But as mentioned, we have also included a number of more serious issues that meeting and event planners should really take note of so as not to suffer a similar fate down the track. We are always told that we should learn by our mistakes, but how many of us really do?
Feel free to send any of your stories of woops and woe to us at any time throughout the year. We’ll be starting a file for our next sealed section almost as soon as we put this one to bed.
Enjoy,
A good director of sales and marketing knows how to do a good hotel site inspection with just the right amount of excitement, drama, and intrigue.
And they also have to know how to think on their feet, as one sales and marketing executive was called up while showing some PCOs a newly refurbished floor.
The site inspection was going on swimmingly, the PCOs were impressed with the new room décor and style, with some even saying they could see their clients staying there quite happily.
But on returning to the lifts the sales exec realised that the floor refurbishment wasn’t quite complete because there were no lift buttons to be found anywhere. The exec had to make a hasty SOS call to rescue the group.
This is an industry, according to one insider, who says we seem to be our own worst enemy.
Bidding for a client event after a courting period of two years, all was going well for an event planner.
“They loved our pitch, they seemed to like us, and we were in dialogue with the decision makers. Well at least that’s what they told us,” the event planner remembers.
“We assessed our opportunity expectation at 95 per cent. They called us in and kept asking questions about locations. We presented various options and narrowed them down to three venues.
The client couldn’t make a decision and the time was getting tight to manage the program efficiently with the properties reluctant to hold the tentative bookings without a confirming deposit.
“And then a spanner was thrown into the works. We were told that procurement had taken over the process and would require another quote.
“We were also told they required nothing more from us, but heard that one of our competitors was asked to produce a complete budget for one of the venues we’d presented. We hadn’t provided a complete budget because we had been trying to tie down a decision on a date and location with the client.
“The goal posts had changed and despite all manner of attempted dialogue with procurement we couldn’t break through the closed door approach.
“A phone call from procurement a couple of weeks later and we were out of the running.
“Time to re-read ‘Stop Bitching: Start Pitching’ - a must read for all industry BDM’s.”
An experienced conference organiser thought they could second guess the guests and made assumptions in the room block calculations assuming some would not attend. There was one potential delegate from India who had made life difficult from the first moment and continued to ignore requests for travel arrival details and completing key registration details. The PCO was so convinced that they wouldn’t attend she ignored all further emails from the delegate, as it happened to her peril. Assuming a “no show” and with a full hotel she cancelled him from the rooming list and gave someone else his room. A no show on the first night, resulted in a convincing “I told you so” to the registration staff. But the next morning he arrived with wife and children after a delayed flight. He had a registration and hotel booking confirmation from the PCO and demanded his room. Never be complacent and don’t assume anything in our business no matter how experienced you think you are!
A very black tie event at a very popular city venue. 350 guests for an awards night. 35 tables with one man at one table tagged as having a nut allergy. This was checked by the catering company at least five time prior to the event. On the night both the catering supervisor and waiter for that table re-checked with the man in question to confirm he had a nut allergy and not to worry it had been noted and attended to. Great service! All good? You would think so. But not so. Main course is served and 10 minutes later a very angry, very white, very shaky guest and friend are searching for the poor event manager, who when found gets blasted with a: “You bloody idiots!!!!! I have a nut allergy, you knew this, so why was I served nuts you $)*%#!$^ idiots!” The response was “Nut (oops I mean not) possible but what can we do.” “Get me $^%*^&&^% cab… I need to get to hospital for a shot.”
An ambulance was rung (and then declined), so was cab (same result), and finally the poor guest was shipped off by his driver for his shot. In the mean time, the trembling event manager grabbed the plate and started to dissect it. No nuts to be seen! Prawns yes (did he have a seafood allergy? – no). Fish yes (was he allergic to fish? – no). Plate in hand the event manager and supervisor head for the kitchen, in search of a chef and hopefully Hercule Poirot on the way. Finally problem solved: chef had decided to put a pesto sauce between the fish and the vegetables underneath. Unseen but definitely nutty in so many ways. To make matters worse the chef had forgotten to let the unsuspecting waiter know. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The menu had also failed to flag the pesto as part of the main course. The upshot was a very sick guest, a very upset and contrite catering company and a truly pissed off client. After lots of flowers, promises and a letter of apology the client was mollified which was lucky because the guest was also a barrister.
“The event will attract at least 5000 delegates,” said the event manager to the promoter.
The promoter replies “on that basis, we will go ahead and stage the event.” As it turns out, only 1000 actually turn up.
The promoter is livid – and has made a big loss. Can the promoter sue?
This time we’ll take a look at how important it is to be careful with the spoken word.
We lawyers spend much of our time creating, reviewing and debating the written word – legal documents seem to thrive in my office, so vigorously have they multiplied!
Why do lawyers insist on so much paperwork? The short answer is that writing is usually better evidence of what took place. The old story about two witnesses seeing the same accident from opposite sides of the road and reporting two diametrically opposed accounts is very real indeed. Neither witness is lying – they just see things from a different vantage point and with different eyes.
Also, human memory is fundamentally unreliable. I suspect that my sporting prowess as a youngster is perhaps mildly less spectacular than I remember it! We are all capable of forgetting details, if not unintentionally re-inventing them over time. Again, we aren’t lying; we’re just being human. You’ll hear me say “get/put it in writing” a lot. But it would be unrealistic in the extreme to expect that everything can be written down and given a legal review. So it’s important to realise that you need to be just as careful with the spoken word – it is every bit as sharp as the pen and can slice you up!
When can your mouth get you into trouble? Just about any time, but clearly the time we are concerned about is when business deals and relationships are being discussed. You need to be careful about what you say both before and after a deal is done and a contract is signed.
There are other possible actions but overwhelmingly the most common claim these days is that the statement was misleading and deceptive under section 52 of the Trade Practices Act – one of the most heavily litigated sections in Australian legal history. Section 52 provides that a corporation must not, in trade or commerce, engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive. Breach of this section exposes you to an action for damages by any person who was misled and/or an injunction to restrain further misleading and deceptive conduct.
The ACCC can get involved too, and sue for injunctions and other remedies. While no offence is committed and no fine applies to breach of section 52, section 53 makes it an offence and penalises certain specific kinds of false representations including those about:
• the value, standard, grade or quality of goods or services;
• sponsorship, approval, performance characteristics, uses or benefits of goods or services;
• availability of service and repair facilities;
• place of origin of goods;
• the existence or exclusion of a legal right or remedy.
The fines for breach of section 53 are heavy – up to $500,000 for the company and up to $200,000 for individual officers involved. As you can see the categories of offence are wide indeed.
For those of you who are not running your business as a company, note that the various state Fair Trading Acts around the country have a similar prohibition on individuals and other non-corporate businesses.
Before the contract is signed you need to be careful to say things that are accurate and that do not (and are not likely to) mislead and deceive. Note that the statement does not need to actually mislead or deceive – the likelihood of that is enough. Also, you cannot assume that your audience is of high intelligence and will be able to overcome or discard the inaccurate content of your statements.
The court has said that “an extraordinarily stupid person” would not be protected by section 52, but that leaves a lot of room for complaint by those who may be a bit below par! Clearly you need to be careful when making claims about your products or services that are not accurate or true. You are allowed to “puff” the product or services, ie extol its virtues (“We run the best events around!”), but you must avoid making statements that are factually incorrect, such as “each guest will receive a full breakfast” when only a continental breakfast is intended.
So, returning to the example with which we started this article, the prediction of 5000 delegates was clearly just that, a prediction. Can the event manager be held accountable for a misleading statement? After all, who can predict the future? You may be surprised to learn that a prediction can breach section 52. If the event manager knew that the event would not draw as many delegates as he suggested or if he made the prediction with reckless disregard for whether the event was capable of attracting that many people, the event manager can be sued for breach of section 52.
Section 51A of the Trade Practices Act also affects the position. It provides that a representation as to a future matter will be taken to be misleading unless the maker of the representation can prove that there were reasonable grounds for making it. Did the event manager have reasonable grounds? To determine this would require an analysis of all of the surrounding circumstances and to ask the event manager, “What led you to predict that number of delegates?”
The promoter will argue that he relied on the prediction in selecting the event manager for the job and that he would not have done so, and agreed to run the event, but for the misleading statement.
Another important point to remember is that a claim can be made under section 52 despite the words of the final contract. You may have seen clauses that state that the whole of the bargain between the parties is set out in the contract. Such clauses may not help, since you cannot “contract out” of liability under the Trade Practices Act. In some cases it may be better to get a warranty (promise) from the other party that they do not rely on pre-contractual statements.
Even after the contract has been written down and signed you need to watch your mouth. Essentially, you need to ensure that your statements and those of your employees are:
• Consistent with your written contracts – if not you may be waiving your rights and remedies, or may establish a course of dealings that cause the written contract to be effectively replaced;
• Accurate and not misleading or deceptive, since even post-contractual statements can cause the other party loss, if they are misleading or deceptive.
For example, if the event manager was to make his prediction of 5000 delegates after the contract was signed, this could still cause loss to the promoter if, for example, there was an option to cancel the event up to an agreed date. In that case he would argue that he would have exercised his right to cancel the event if the statement had not been made.
Finally, it is also important to remember that it is not only what you do say that can get you into strife, but also what you don’t say. If you tell a half truth you may be able to state that what you did say was accurate – but if that has led others to make false assumptions about other, unstated matters, the silence can be a breach of section 52.
The Trade Practices Act is all-pervading. You need to be careful, in business, about what you do and don’t say. There are other nasties to be wary of, like defamation, but that is for another time.
Contact Matt Crouch at Bartier Perry on (02) 8281 7835 or email mcrouch@bartier.com.au.
Sometimes you just have to let it go as a NZ marquee company discovered following an email tirade that travelled around the world. The CEO of the company sacked his wife after complaints were received following an email she sent a woman who had made an enquiry about hiring a marquee for her upcoming wedding. The woman Paula Brosnahan enquired about a marquee for her wedding, and later decided it was unsuitable. She received a return email from the marquee company saying they were happy she did not require a marquee because her wedding sounded “cheap, nasty and tacky”.
“Your wedding sounded cheap, nasty and tacky anyway, so we only ever considered you time wasters. Our marquees are for upper class clients which unfortunately you are not. Why don’t you stay with your class levels and buy something from Payless Plastics instead.”
Company director of The Great Marquee Company, Klaus Jorgensen said he was extremely sorry, and had sacked the employee – his wife – over the incident.
A late night after a long event, a couple of beers, last farewells, and I was eager to get some well earned sleep, even if in a hotel bed in a foreign country. I awoke in a daze, yawning and needing to go to the toilet. Now where was that door? Open the door, another yawn and upon opening the eyes fully realised I was in the corridor and not the bathroom. Too late as the room door slammed shut and the bright lights of the corridor sober the moment. Rule number one when in a hotel: never sleep without pyjamas. With rule # 1 broken and eager to relieve the pressure on the bladder I raced down the corridor to find back of house, but on hearing voices turned and headed for the exit at the end of the corridor. Door opened, closed and couldn’t be reopened. Down the fire escape and into the car park. Finally relief, but where to from here? Walking outside was not an option. How do you explain without any form of identification?
Recent renovations had left a pile of rubble in one corner of the car park and a hessian bag on top to keep the dust down and make it look neat and tidy. I wrapped the hessian around my waist and marched up the stairs and into the lobby, all eyes upon me. I asked reception for my room key and asked them not to ask any questions.
Checking out the next day was the most embarrassing experience of my life, believing that all and sundry had seen the security video for breakfast.
The room looked stunning, the entrance a piece de resistance, giving that WOW first impression. Guests began milling at the doors, doors ready to be opened – 1, 2, bang! What was that? Lights on a main chandelier in the centre of the room had exploded, felling glass on tables and chairs. Staff had scurried for safety in all directions while others cowered under nearby tables. Many stared blankly at the chandelier and the mess until the clear-headed event organiser calmly requested a ladder, brush and pan to clean up the mess. Staff at first were staring and obviously awaited direction.
After just a short delay of a few minutes the guests were none the wiser and the show began without apparent incident.
Some things it seems, just go wrong, as an event producer discovered during an incentive event in China. The hapless producer watched in horror as a lighting arm broke free and crashed into a centuries old dragon perched on the eaves of a temple dating back to the 15th century. The dragon lost his nose in the impact. A Chinese official at the time said the dragon could be repaired for $10,000 US. And it was!
This one comes as a reminder to expect anything in our industry (think naked men running into a conference dinner in the USA as depicted in the final scenes in Borat the movie). The Thursday before Easter a few years back, with road transport carrying exhibitors’ gear and conference materials across the Nullabor, delegates and families heading for a pre-conference Easter break, and PCO staff going through last-minute conference preparations in Sydney. All were heading for Broome, or would be soon enough. A low pressure system had been given a category cyclone warning level but was due to stay out at sea or cross the coast further south of Broome. Or so they said… TC Rosita became one of the most severe tropical cyclones to cross the west Kimberley coast in the past 100 years. Wind gusts in Broome were recorded at 153kph at their highest, and power supplies were cut to many parts of the town for several days. The PCO company spent 48 hours of phone calling and emails to relocate the event to Sydney. Not easy but it worked!
Some many years ago in a southern state capital there was an incident at the rehearsal for a car launch which at the time was very scary for those involved, but on reflection is a little humorous. The creative types at the advertising agency thought it would be very dramatic to have a live lion on stage at the start of the show, and that it would be even better if he appeared to be free, roaming the stage. Now this presented a few logistical challenges most of which centred on clear sight lines and the safety of the audience. It was determined that a large perspex cage would be constructed which would provide the necessary protection as well as giving the illusion that the lion was free, in the wild and roaming the stage. Everything was going well.It was a large technical set up with a lot of equipment and technical staff involved. The “cage” was set up and it was rehearsal time; crew were busy making final adjustments around the stage and auditorium. The lion tamer arrived with the lion and the stage was cleared for the lion rehearsal. Some of the production team were working just off stage as well as seated in the auditorium. The lion was set “free” into the perspex cage, looking a little agitated, when something spooked him and with an extremely loud roar he charged at the wall of the cage with tremendous force - so much force in fact that the cage walls fell down and the lion “escaped” into the auditorium.
This created much pandemonium with crew running in all directions and a very concerned lion tamer trying to tranquilise his lion, which he succeeded in doing. This made for a very large sleepy lion. Like all true professionals this extreme run of events were overcome and the show did go on - minus the free-roaming lion effect. And in case you are wondering we can report that up close a lion’s roar is very loud and that a lion’s piss has a very strong odour!
Few people can sell a design concept like the owner of this exhibition stand design and construction company. And the client is always impressed by his very reasonable budget. Once the job is won, however, his profit instincts kick in. More than a few corners are cut, and the on-site reality comes up rather short of the dream. The client arrives on-site, sees the cut-price execution of the original idea, and makes an irate phone call. The exhibition designer rushes down and makes a great show of being horrified. The object of his anger is the hapless leader of his installation team.
“This is not good enough! You’ve ruined my design, and humiliated me in front of my best client! That’s the last time you do this to me… you’re FIRED!”
The installer looks crushed. The client is sympathetic to a hard-working guy losing his livelihood like that. Perhaps the stand isn’t really so bad after all. Eventually they sign off on it without much alteration.
How would they know it’s the fifth time the installer had been publicly “fired” in the last year?
Brisbane-based Staging Dimensions has discovered the hard way what a failure to correctly document and record occupational health and safety practices is when they were fined $38,000 plus legal costs after a contractor was injured unloading a truck. MD Russell Bennett said Staging Dimensions was charged with “Fail to ensure safe workplace” and “Failure to ensure other persons are not exposed to risks to their health and safety” by the Queensland Department of Industrial Relations. The charges were brought after a number of individuals from the crewing company, All Access Crewing, and one casual employee of Staging Dimensions were injured. The worst injury was one of the sub-contractors breaking his foot.
“The two charges relating to the injuries to contractors were pleaded out by our barrister on the basis that the Industrial Relations Department was not charging All Access Crewing, our labour contractor, with any breaches, and Staging Dimensions was employing the contractors on the basis of undertakings given by All Access Crewing that their crews were adequately trained in aspects of OH&S safety within the industry,” Mr Bennett explains.
“Staging Dimensions pleaded guilty to two charges relating to the injuries sustained (two fractures of an ankle) by their casual employee. Essentially our documentation was not detailed enough to cover transport of goods and most importantly All Access Crewing, with the task of unloading the sets and props from the truck, had not been pulled together for a discussion on how to unload the truck prior to starting.
“The charges were found against the company with no charges recorded and a fine and court costs of $38,000 plus our legal costs.
“Overall the experience has led to a process over the last 18 months to have all of our OH&S procedures fully documented, the result of which is two large binders of policies and procedures and three booklets to staff (Employee/Staff Safety /Sexual Harassment & Bullying & Code of Ethics). We always had these policies in our employee manuals but they were not detailed enough in the scope of transport, warehousing, construction, electrical, event design within various locations, venue large and small, marquees, warehouses, parklands, forests and beaches.
“Overall, the expense on top of any fines has been in excess of $80,000 in preparation of the detailed policies and procedures [that we have had to develop].”
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